Home Health Care Services
* Re: “Home-Care Homecoming,” May 1.
The implication that the defunct Visiting Nurses Assn. was the end of the line for top-quality home health care for Los Angeles residents, including the poor and uninsured, is patently false. For the past 56 years, Verdugo Hills Visiting Nurse Assn., now VNACare, has continued to serve an ever-broadening population regardless of ability to pay. In fact, several former VNA of L.A. staff members have joined VNACare.
As recently as 1997, there were 11 VNAs in Southern California. There are now only five, and VNACare is the only nonprofit VNA based in Los Angeles County. Since our inception in 1943, our policy has been to never turn anyone away because of a lack of insurance or ability to pay. Our staff of exceptionally skilled and dedicated nurses, home health aides, social workers and physical, speech and occupational therapists is routinely faced with patient and family situations where the need for home health visits, medications and supplies far outweighs what many insurance companies, Medicare and Medi-Cal offer for coverage.
According to the California Department of Health Services, 155 home health agencies closed between December 1997 and January 1999. In addition, 20 agencies’ licenses were suspended, leaving California with 175 fewer agencies to serve its ill, elderly and disabled.
Because of these closures, referrals to VNACare have increased over 108%.
Faced with the necessity of rapid expansion, it is a challenge for VNACare to meet the needs of the community. Recruiting and training only the best and most experienced nurses for a greatly expanded service area is costly and time consuming, and new federal regulations have necessitated the additional expense of new equipment. This has overwhelmed traditional funding sources, which consist primarily of United Way, small local foundations and private donations, many from grateful former patients and their families. A newly expanded fund-raising department is attempting to meet these increased needs through actively seeking new sources of revenues.
Our story needs to be heard. The need is great.
MARIE REYNOLDS
Executive Director, VNACare
Glendale